I say that with a mixture of sadness and relief. Over the course of three years, Elma and I have researched, curated and written 152 posts, covering nearly 900 films, documentaries and TV shows.

We did it because we loved it. Each week we’d unearth a complex web of threads connecting current titles to the massive online library that we are all blessed to have at our fingertips. Some of the connections were obvious, some were obscure. Some resonant, some just fun.

The process was always delightful. And, it was a tremendous amount of work.

But what I’ll especially miss are all the juicy and culty titles we would discover – or, in some cases, re-discover – in the course of our detective work.

So for this last post, I’ve pulled together a fast, long and extremely biased list of some of discoveries Elma and I have made over the last three years, stretching back to August 2014.

Thanks for reading. Arrivaderci! *Each title is followed by the date of the post*

Afternoon Delight(2013)
5/18/17
Jill Soloway’s 2013 first film. Kathryn Hahn is a frustrated LA Mom who opens up her home to a homeless young exotic dancer (Juno Temple).

A Field in England (2013)
4/20/17
Hot UK team Ben Wheatley and wife Amy Jump’s low-budget, anti-romantic account of the 17th Century civil wars, complete with psychedelic mushrooms.

Welcome to The Rileys (2010)
3/9/17
Kristen Stewart and James Gandolfini in an unexpected fable of a bereaved father.

Orange Sunshine (2016)
1/12/17
Acclaimed doc maker William Kirkley tells the story of Brotherhood of Eternal Love, a mystical/altruistic band of surfer hippies out of Laguna Beach who manufactured and sold 100 million hits of LSD.

The Jackie Show – Televised Tour of the White House (1962)
12/8/16
80 million people watched as the breathy, beautiful and slightly distant young First Lady showed off her White House restoration on live TV.

Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (2009)
12/1/16
Damien Chazelle’s Harvard Thesis film is a jazz musical warm-up for La La Land, scored by his collaborator Justin Hurwitz.

Margaret (2007/10)
11/17/16
Kenneth Lonergan’s uneasy maybe-masterpiece starring Anna Paquin (pre-True Blood) as a magnetically unlikeable New York teen trying to work out her place in the universe.

Crystal Fairy and the Magical Cactus (2013)
11/3/16
Sebastian Silva’s story of a feckless American (Michael Cera) who sets off in search of psychedelic cactus. He and Chilean friends are joined by spacey, free-spirited Crystal Fairy (Gaby Hoffman). The trip becomes the trip.

400 Blows (1959)
10/27/16
Autobiographical childhood film from 27-year-old critic Francois Truffaut that exploded him into the front ranks of the New Wave. We’d never seen it before!

Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution(2015)
10/6/16
Scary black men with rifles on the steps of the California State House. The amazing story told definitively in this PBS doc from Stanley Nelson.

Open Your Eyes(1997)
8/25/16
Alejandro Amenabar’s mindbending Spanish language parable about a young man whose lust captures him in an endless loop of subjective reality was the basis for Vanilla Sky.

Summer with Monika (1953)
8/11/16
This remarkable early Bergman film about adolescent lovers who escape on a summer idyll has been cited as an influence by both John Waters and Woody Allen.

A Woman Named Golda (1982)
7/28/16
You wouldn’t know that Ingrid Bergman was dying of cancer when she made this surprising portrait of the grandmotherly and iron-willed Israeli Prime Minister. Leonard Nimoy plays her husband, Judy Davis is the young Golda.

A Most Wanted Man (2014)
7/7/16
A stark, chilling spy movie from Dutch directory Anton Corbijn, with Seymour Phillip Hoffman starring in his last leading role.

The Source(1999)
6/30/16
Chuck Workman’s definitive documentary on The Beats. Focuses on Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs, with Dennis Hopper, Johnny Depp and John Turturro reading their works.

The Blue Room(2014)
6/23/16
A distinctively French and exceptionally erotic thriller from director Mathieu Amalric, based on a novel by Georges Simenon.

Black Death (2010)
6/16/16
From horror director Chris Smith, “Dark Ages Pulp” — a horror/fable about the evils of religion and belief, with plenty of gore and a liberal dash of the supernatural. With Sean Bean, aka Edard Stark, and Carice von Houten (GOT’s Melisandre).

I Am Love (2009)
5/5/16
In the third of Tilda Swinton’s ongoing string of collaborations with Italian director Luca Guadigno (Biggest Splash), she plays the Russian-born matriarch of a haute bourgeois Italian family that has fallen on rocky times.

Better Off Ted (2009-2010)
4/7/16
A “brilliant but cancelled” ABC office sitcom that is a more-accurate-than-most mirror of contemporary corporate life.

L’Atalante (1932)
3/10/16
This was the last of seminal French director Jean Viggo’s four films. He died in his wife’s arms a few days after the film’s disastrous release. Now it’s beloved, the exceptionally simple story of a girl from a river town who impulsively marries a barge captain.

Labyrinthe (1986)
1/14/16
15-year-old Jennifer Connelly is a girl on the brink of womanhood whose fantasies come alive. David Bowie is Jareth, the Ogre King, tempter and torturer in a glam rock wig and notoriously form-fitting tights. Cult fantasy collaboration from George Lucas and Jim (Muppet) Henson.

99 Homes(2015)
12/11/15
Michael Shannon is a real estate shark who teaches Andrew Garfield how to save his family home – by preying on others. The start of our obsession with chameleon Shannon.

The Great Beauty (2013)
12/3/15
Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar winner about a famous journalist who blithely charms his way through the upper echelons of Roman culture – until, on his 65th birthday, his true love unexpectedly dies.

Purple Noon (1960)
11/10/15
René Clément directs Alain Delon in this superior French version of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley. Recently remastered by Criterion, spoiled only by a wimped-out ending.

Animal Kingdom (2011)
9/24/15
Ben Mendelsohn plays a borerline psychopath in this Down Under reinvigoration of American gangster conventions. Oscar nom for Jacki Weaver, career rebirth for Mendelsohn.

Werner Von Braun: Missile to the Moon (2012)
9/3/15
Biography of the charismatic and photogenic ex-Nazi who led Germany’s V2 missile program, was forgiven, and became the face of the American lunar project in the 60’s.

The Maid (2009)
8/27/15
In this Chilean Sundance Grand Jury winner, a family retainer turns the tables when it looks like she’s going to be replaced by a younger woman. Delicious evil star turn by famous actress Catalina Saavedra.

Mother(2009)
7/23/15
From Korean director Bong Joon-ho (Snowpiercer) – a devoted and deceptively innocuous mother stops at nothing to get her murderous son out of prison.

Maggie (2015)
5/7/15
Arnold Schwarzenegger gives an surprisingly excellent, dialed-back performance as a father whose daughter is infected with a zombie virus and faces unbearable. Post-apocalyptic, but not an action film.

The Internet’s Own Boy: The Life of Aaron Schwartz (2014)
4/9/15
Digital-focused doc maker Brian Knappenberger hones on in programming prodigy Schwartz, who was instrumental in developing RSS, Creative Commons and Reddit, but was hounded to death after he successfully defeated the corporation-backed Stop Online Piracy Act.

Hustle & Flow (2004)
3/18/15
This Sundance breakout stars Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson as a pimp and his girlfriend trying to rap their way out of the ghetto, showing a lot of chemistry and foreshadowing Empire.

Claudine(1974)
2/19/15
In the heyday of Blaxploitation, Diahann Carroll got an Oscar nomination for this story of a single welfare mother who falls in love with a garbage man, played by James Earl Jones. Music by Curtis Mayfield.

The Music of Chance (1993)
2/5/15
James Spader donned a black wig and moustache to play a hustling gambler. But it’s not what you think. The director is Peter Haas who went on to do Angels and Insects. Mandy Patinkin, Charles Durning, Joel Grey.

The Babadook (2014)
1/22/15
Mind-twisting Freudian study cloaked in a meticulously crafted horror film about a widowed mother and her troubled/troublesome 7-year-old, from first-time Aussie director Jennifer Kent.

Red Riding(2009)
1/15/15
A pre-breakout Andrew Garfield is outstanding in this unique UK TV project based on David Pearce’s serial killer novels. Three novels, three films, three great directors, three years, three different looks (16mm; 35mm; digital) – all pulled together by screenwriter Tony Grisoni.

Headhunters (1991)
11/20/14
From director Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game) highest grossing Norwegian film ever. A short and pathologically ambitious headhunter moonlights as an art thief to support his trophy wife. Things go wrong.

Following (1998)
11/6/14
Great time to revisit Christopher Nolan’s first film. A black and white low-budget creeper that interweaves three stories from three different time frames.

Brothers of the Head (2006)
10/8/14
Remarkably authentic and intentionally unfunny mockumentary by the makers of LOST IN LA MANCHA follows a pair of conjoined twins who become punk rockers in 1970’s England.

Ace in the Hole (1951)
9/25/14
Neglected and prescient film from Billy Wilder. Kirk Douglas plays a corrupt, disgraced reporter who seizes an opportunity to go big when a smalltown man is trapped in a cave. First time Wilder was writer, producer and director.

With camping season in full swing, we decided to highlight a breed of films that are best avoided if you are heading into the wild.

We’re talking about movies that take place on back roads, deep in the woods and in far-flung, sparsely populated locales—the kind of places where opportunities for outdoor activities abound.

But these are movies… Any protagonist who ventures into an unspoiled location is guaranteed to encounter something a lot more troublesome than pesky mosquitoes and spotty cellphone service.

Happy Camping!!

Ian and Samantha head to a national park, hoping the bush will give them space for some quiet time together. They arrive at an isolated campsite to find an SUV and a tent – no sign of the occupants.

As night falls and the campers fail to return, Ian and Sam grow increasingly uneasy. The discovery of a distressed child wandering in the woods unleashes a terrifying chain of events that test the young couple to breaking point.

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999)

Yes, technically it’s a horror film, but any urbanite camper who ventures out into the woods is going to hear strange noises late at night – and think of this film.

This film combined Hi8 video with B&W 16mm film. The premise is 3 students go into the Maryland woods at night and are never seen again. All that remains is the “found footage” documenting their adventures leading up to their final minutes.

INTO THE WILD (2007)

Based on the true story of Christopher McCandless, a young man who abandoned a traditional post-graduate life and attempted to live independently in the wilds of Alaska. What happened to him on the way transformed this young wanderer into an enduring symbol for anyone who has dreamed chucking it all and returning to nature.

In the end, he tested himself by heading alone into the wilds of the great North, where everything he had seen and learned and felt came to a head in ways he never could have expected.

It’s a sobering reminder to be prepared and humble before venturing into the wilderness; but many campers will also relate to McCandless’ sense of adventure and abandon.

DELIVERANCE (1972)

Adapted from poet James Dickey’s popular novel, John Boorman’s 1972 movie recounts the grueling psychological and physical journey taken by four city slickers down a river in the backwoods of Georgia. At the request of Iron John-esque Lewis (Burt Reynolds), Ed (Jon Voight), Bobby (Ned Beatty) and Drew (Ronny Cox) agree to canoe down wild, uncharted section of the river before a dam project ruins the region.

After warnings from the locals, and Drew’s ominous “Dueling Banjos” encounter with a mute inbred boy, the four men embark on their trip. On day 2, things take a turn for the worse when Bobby and Ed decide to rest on shore after becoming separated from Lewis and Drew. Two rifle-wielding mountain men (Bill McKinney and Herbert “Cowboy” Coward) emerge from the woods and capture the men. I won’t go into details on what happens next but if you haven’t seen the film — be warned.

Lewis and Drew rescue them, but the attack changes the nature of the journey. As the river gets rougher and rougher, the men come to nightmarish grips with what it means to survive outside the safety net of “civilization.”

WOLF CREEK (2005)

A dream vacation turns into a nightmare in this taut thriller from Australia. Ben (Nathan Phillips), Lizzie (Cassandra Magrath), and Kristy (Kestie Morassi) are three friends who, after a night of celebratory drinking, hit the road for a trip to Wolf Creek National Park, where they plan to spend a week hiking and surfing. The three friends are happy to be spending time together, especially after Ben makes the happy discovery that Lizzie is as infatuated with him as he is with her.

After a long day hiking, Ben, Lizzie, and Kristy make the unpleasant discovery that their car’s battery is dead, leaving them stuck in the middle of nowhere. Help arrives in the form of Mick (John Jarratt), a burly but good-natured outdoorsman who happens upon them; Mick tells them that he can fix their car, and offers to give them a ride to his place down the road.

Grateful but a bit nervous around the gregarious stranger, Ben, Lizzie, and Kristy offer Mick a wealth of thanks for his help, and give him some money for his troubles before they fall asleep around the campfire. The next morning, the travelers find themselves bound, gagged, drugged, and separated from one another, and they realize Mick is not the good Samaritan they imagined.

RACE WITH THE DEVIL (1975)

Peter Fonda, Warren Oats, Lara Parker and Loretta Swit star as two couples who go on vacation together and drive their R.V. deep into the Texas hinterlands where they camp out, drink beer and tear up the backroads on their dirt bikes.

Their holiday turns deadly when they accidentally witness a secret ceremony of devil worshippers and a human sacrifice. Their presence is discovered and they barely elude the pursuing coven members.

When they report the incident to the local police, the investigation leads nowhere and the two couples are strongly urged to leave the area. Back on the road again, the vacationers soon realize they are not safe and are being stalked at every stop along their way.

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Your Curators

Can't decide what to watch?FollowTheThread. Each week Elma and I give you 5 opinionated but culturally relevant choices, based on our experience of curating smart sticky stuff for Ovation, Trio, Bravo, A&E, Sundance, Fuse, and others.

A long-time fixture of New York’s glittering social scene, Miami’s jai lai courts, and the interstate highway system’s “big rigs,” Elma Cremin has spent her life absorbing all things pop culture.Movies, cult tv shows, documentaries, art, fashion—you cut her and she’ll bleed out in the colors of an Andy Warhol Brillo Pad box. Finally, after years of working inside the system with such networks as Sundance, Trio, Fuse TV and Ovation, she went “ghost protocol” and co-founded FollowTheThread in order to work outside the petty restraints of the industry and share her remarkable knowledge.